Corruption and Happiness

Having lived in countries with widely varying standards of honesty, I was interested to find the research summarised in the table below.  The data confirms the beneficial influence of the Bible in countries with a Bible-based heritage.

Transparency International, a global organisation dedicated to the fight against corruption, has estimated corruption levels for 180 countries.

The table below shows the corruption scores for the years 2015-2017 of the 5 least corrupt countries in the world.  It should be noted that these countries all have a Bible-based Protestant heritage!

The countries with the highest Corruption Scores in the table have the lowest corruption levels:

Corruption
Score 2017
Corruption
Score 2016
Corruption
Score 2015
Happiness
Ranking
New Zealand
89
90
91
8
Denmark
88
90
91
2
Finland
85
89
90
5
Norway
85
85
88
1
Switzerland
85
86
86
4

  • New Zealand and Denmark are currently at the top of the table with the lowest corruption levels, however their scores declined from 2015 to 2017.

  • The World Happiness Report 2017 compares happiness in 155 countries and has assigned Happiness Rankings (blue column).  Norway is rated as the happiest!

  • The countries with low corruption and high happiness have had a Protestant or Bible-based heritage.  

  • As the influence of their Bible-based heritage has faded with time, corruption has increased, security technology become more pervasive, churches emptied and prisons overcrowded.

The complete country lists on the websites show that most non-Protestant heritage countries – whether Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Hindu or Communist – have higher corruption and lower happiness than the Protestant heritage countries.   This will not surprise those who believe that the Bible is our manufacturer's handbook! 

Lindsay Smith, July 2018